Hindsight is 20/20.
And that's exactly what Penn Course Review provides. By displaying student evaluations of classes from past semesters, the system allows current students to make more informed course registration decisions.
Starting in spring 2009, the system will be completely electronic, meaning that students won't have to fill out paper evaluations anymore. There's only one problem - with online evaluations, the current 70- to 80-percent response rate might drop significantly.
To prevent this, the University should mandate that students fill out the forms at the end of the semester.
Some peer institutions already require students to fill out course evaluations by withholding grades until the student's forms are submitted. Penn officials are considering implementing such a system. If so, administrators would be able to identify which students fill out the forms, while keeping the actual responses completely confidential.
Otherwise, the University community could lose a useful tool when Penn Course Review goes electronic. If participation in course evaluations drops next spring, the accuracy of the information provided will also suffer.
By forcing students to spend a couple of minutes completing evaluations, the University can ensure that everyone chips in to maintain Penn Course Review's value.
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